Abstract

MARQUEZ DOREN, Francisca; POUPIN BERTONI, Lauren  and  LUCCHINI RAIES, Camila. Massage effects at the newborn and suckling baby. Index Enferm [online]. 2007, vol.16, n.57, pp.42-46. ISSN 1699-5988.

Background: infant massage is a relatively new technic in the western society, concerned from India by Dr. Leboyer, who observed his benefits for the children. Design: bibliographical review of 10 studies, whose limits search were infant massage, infant tactile stimulation, with just of 6 years of antiquity, randomized control trail, of data bases Pubmed, Cinhal, Medline and Cochrane. Intention: to determine the effect of the massage in new born and child, considering of preterm and term babys, with or without pathologies, that received massage. Main results: better gain of weight, better neurosensorial development, prolonged periods of alert, increase in vagal tone and gastric motilility, analgesic effects. Also, better organization of the dream, decress stress hormone and erlier food reception by oral route, less hopitalization time and interaction with his mother was positive. The massage did not show significant results in dicrissing colikys in normal children nor dicrissing of the craying in children with brain injuries. Conclusions: The infant massage demonstrated to have manifold benefits for the newborn and child, his mother and her interaction, but special situations exist in which it was not effective.

Keywords : Infant massage; Infant tactile stimulation; Newborn; Suckling baby.